HEALTH & EDUCATION

Health & Education

We all want the best care possible for our horses. The Heath & Education section covers both Learning Institutions, Organizations as well as many sources for equine assistance including Veterinarians and Farriers.

For those who want a to formally study horses, the Education section includes College Riding, Equine Studies, and Veterinary Schools. Learn about the wide variety of horses in the Horse Breeds section. Supplements and Treatments Therapy are also included in the section.

Everyone can learn from Fine Art and there are some specialty Museums that might surprise you.

Horses as a therapy partner enrich the lives of the disabled. These facilities are listed in our Therapeutic Riding section. To help children and young adults build confidence and grow emotionally, please see the resources available on the Youth Outreach page.

Looking for a place to keep your horse? You can find it in the Horse Boarding section. Traveling? Find a Shipping company or Horse Sitting service if your horse is staying home!

Want to stay up to date with the latest training clinics or professional conferences? Take a look at our Calendar of Events for Health & Education for the dates and locations of upcoming events.

Do we need to add more? Please use the useful feedback link and let us know!

Signage is a good start for making farm visitors aware of biosecurity protocol but a point person and educated staff, owners, clients and service providers are all part of the equation to help reduce the risk of introducing or spreading disease on your property.

Ensuring everyone understands their respective biosecurity roles begins with having Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place.

Work with your veterinarian when reviewing your Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and when developing new ones to target relevant risks. The designated person can then ensure all staff are trained annually and whenever there is a change in process. Maintaining a record of staff training helps to ensure the necessary protocols and risks are addressed. A copy of the farm or facility’s biosecurity protocol should be kept accessible to all potential users. A contact list should be kept of owners, custodians, clients, and service providers including facility workers, veterinarians and so on, in order to distribute and communicate biosecurity information.

Regularly monitor horse health. Train all staff and volunteers to understand and conduct a Horse Health Check Assessment and record the results in the log book along with any concerns and follow-up. Recognizing the signs of illness early and taking immediate action is a crucial step in reducing the risk of spreading disease. Equine Guelph’s Horse Health Tracker App is a very useful guide for this assessment. Protocols for managing the sick horse and other horses are important to have in place. Ensure that everyone understands the protocols. Horse owners, custodians, and farm and facility mangers must discuss these issues to ensure horse health and welfare is maintained.

This is a sample Intro to Lope lesson for horseback riding students demonstrating the 15 minute lesson format used by participants during a Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) riding instructor certification. Visit CHA.horse to find a certification near you.

Photo courtesy of Kentucky Equine Research

Despite veterinary experts inundating horse owners with information on the link between obesity, equine metabolic syndrome, and laminitis, overconditioning and subsequent obesity are prominent welfare issues. An estimated 50% of horses are classified as overweight, with up to 30% of those considered obese. This problem, however, is not restricted to sedentary horses but is widespread, even among elite performance horses.

In a recent study, nutritionists at North Carolina State University evaluated the body condition scores (BCS) of 377 elite ponies competing at a national hunter competition.^* The same two evaluators also assigned a cresty neck score (CNS) to the same ponies.

“The standard nine-point Henneke BCS scale was used, where a BCS of 5 was considered ideal and a BCS greater than 6 was considered overweight. For the five-point CNS, a ‘cresty neck’ was defined as a score of more than 2.5,” explained Ashley Fowler, Ph.D., a nutritionist for Kentucky Equine Research.

“A cresty neck is characterized by fat accumulation along the top of the neck. Studies have found that a cresty neck increases the risk for metabolic issues, such as insulin resistance. Some horses may have a cresty neck without being considered fat or extremely fat (BCS higher than 7), so measuring both BCS and CNS is important,” explained Fowler.

The average BCS of the ponies was 6.7, which is considered overweight. No pony was designated as thin as all ponies had a BCS of more than 5. The average CNS was 2.8, meaning, as a group, the ponies did have cresty necks.

“In total, 93% of the ponies were overweight, with 35.5% of those having a BCS greater than 7,” summarized Fowler.

According to the nutritionists conducting the study, “This is of concern considering the vast amount of evidence to suggest that overweight equids are at a higher risk of disease. Animals with a body condition score of 7 or higher and/or regional adiposity (such as a cresty neck) have a 3-5 times higher risk of developing laminitis.”

Potential reasons explaining the tendency towards obesity include the following:

Impression by owners that overconditioned animals perform better than underconditioned animals;
Peer pressure from other owners can affect how individuals approach their own horse’s adiposity and weight-loss efforts;
Owners are not skilled at evaluating BCS, with studies showing they often do not recognize their horse is overweight or obese; and
Studies show that even judges “prefer” overweight horses to lean (but not thin) ones.

Whether you are building from scratch or renovating, keeping biosecurity in mind can help reduce the risk of introducing or spreading disease on your property.

When building:

Select smooth, non-porous, durable materials as they are easy to clean and disinfect; there are a wide variety of materials to choose from depending on the intended use (e.g. metal, vinyl coated metal, polymer coated wood, sealed concrete and some plastics).
Seal wooden surfaces with non-toxic marine grade enamel paint or urethane, again for easy cleaning and disinfecting. Avoid sealing surfaces that horses may chew on.
Choose building materials that will not shatter or splinter if a horse kicks them and will not degrade on continued exposure to sunlight, water, and products used for cleaning and disinfecting.
Plan for a sufficient number of taps and sinks for cleaning and hand washing and ensure adequate subsurface drainage to remove waste water and storm water.
Always check with the product manufacturer that paints, sealers, cleaners and disinfectants are approved for use in livestock buildings.

Before you build or renovate consider:

Geography: areas less densely populated with horses and livestock can reduce risk of exposure to pathogens.
Topography: Slope of land and type of soil affects drainage, pasture quality, footing for horses and ease of building. Trees and hills can provide protection from the sun and influence wind patterns and ventilation. Ponds and streams can be an attractant for wildlife, pests and affect drainage.
Layout: Plan for the number of horses to be housed and potential expansion. Consider separating horses that are at higher risk of disease exposure (such as horses that are frequently travelling to other farms or facilities) from horses at lower risk (those that rarely leave the property). Minimize the chance of contamination of feed, water and clean bedding from manure and wash water.
Traffic Flow: Reduce the risk of spreading pathogens by controlling the movement of people, horses, equipment and material on the farm or facility. Also, review section six and seven on movement of horses and access management in the National Farm and Facility Level Biosecurity Standard for the Equine Sector.

by Eleanor Kellon, VMD

Both owners and professionals seem to fall into two groups, those who espouse forage only (hay, pasture) and those who focus on the commercial grain they feed. Both are wrong.

FOUNDATION OF EVERY HORSE'S DIET

It's true that the foundation of every horse's diet should be forage. The more work the horse does, the more calories they need and horses doing very physically demanding work often cannot get all the carbohydrates they need to maintain muscle glucose stores (glycogen) with forage alone. That is where concentrated carbohydrate sources come in. However, no horse needs grain for anything else.

WHAT IS HAY

Hay is simply dried grass. It has lower calories and lower carbohydrates than live grass because it continues to metabolize those until water reaches a critical low level and stops enzyme activity.

HAY'S PROTEIN

Hay is the horse's major source of protein. Good quality grass hay contains 8 to 12% protein yielding 362 to 545 grams of protein in 10 pounds. In contrast, 5 lbs of a 10% protein grain has 227 grams. Forage is the major source of protein.

HAY'S VITAMINS

When hay is cured, it rapidly loses vitamins C, E and, over time, the vitamin A precursor carotene. However, it is an excellent source of vitamin D and all the B vitamins are preserved in their biologically activated form.

HAY'S FAT

There is no dietary requirement for fat other than the essential fatty acids which the body cannot manufacture. This hasn't been studied in horses but in other species, alpha-linoleic and linolenic acid, omega-6, and omega-3. Live grass is a rich supply of both but cured hay loses its omega-3 and this needs to be replaced with flax or Chia seed. Grains and all the common vegetable oils are low in omega-3 and high in omega-6.

HAY'S ESSENTIAL MINERALS

Hay or grass contains all the nutritionally essential minerals, although not necessarily in the correct minimum amounts or ratios. Grains are not inherently balanced either but manufacturers can add what is needed to help meet minimum levels. What they cannot do is correct imbalances in the hay and for most horses that leaves the bulk of the diet unbalanced.

HAY ANALYSIS

Hay analysis is the ideal way to find out what needs to be added to the diet to balance hay. You can also reach out to your local agricultural extension agent or the state agriculture department to get average figures for where the hay was grown.

CONCLUSION

If horses were still roaming over hundreds of miles eating a wide variety of vegetation we wouldn't have to consider the imbalances created by the exact same diet for months or even years. It takes a little effort to get the diet maximized but well worth the effort.

This article originally appeared on Uckele Nutrition and is published here with permission.

There are lots of good articles in our section on Health & Education.

Certified Horsemanship Association Instructor Dale Rudin explains reading horse behavior and how the horse communicates through body language in this educational tip by Certified Horsemanship Association

Courtesy of Damrock Farm

Today, I am going to talk about twin pregnancies and why responsible breeders do not let them continue past 14-16 days post breeding. We had three mares bred this year and that we ended up with three sets of twins. Some might say we hit the jackpot, 6 for the price of 3. But no, it's the furthest thing from the jackpot that is possible as far as I am concerned. And, I'm going to tell you why after receiving a couple of messages asking why we don't just let the mare have twins.

We got lucky on the first two twin reductions, keeping the second foal. Not so with the third. Our mare, Mula, did as we feared and aborted the second foal along with the one we were trying to remove. Not a surprise, but definitely a disappointment. They were just too close not to damage both in the quest to remove only one.

For those of you who are questioning why we don't leave well enough alone, here are the facts. Mares are not made to carry two babies, plain and simple. It's VERY rarely successful. Sure, you occasionally see pictures of cute twin babies that the owners did not know were there and were born healthy enough to stay alive. In most cases, they only stay alive with lots of extra care and huge financial investment. In reality, the numbers of twins who survive to get their pictures plastered all over Facebook is only a small percentage of those who are produced. In most cases, either one or both foals will die, despite heroic measures. It is also extremely risky for a mare to try and deliver twin foals, putting her own life, as well as the foals, at high risk.

The answer is to reduce the pregnancy to one viable fetus, leading to one healthy foal and a normal delivery for the mare carrying it. Is reduction a perfect science? Absolutely not. Should it be done? In my opinion, absolutely yes! Most times, if a mare gets pregnant with twins and it's either not discovered or the owner elects to try to "let nature take its course" both foals will be aborted naturally by the mare, hopefully before they are big enough to injure the mare in the process. If they survive until normal delivery time, usually one or both of the foals will die and the mare is at great risk of death or serious injury herself trying to deliver them.

In today's episode, Dr. Colton Thacker shares his knowledge of ultrasound and imaging. Dr. Thacker will discuss his experiences working at yearling sales and how he uses his expertise in imaging to evaluate potential purchases for his clients. He will also share his insights regarding the value of imaging during lameness exams and how ultrasound can help pinpoint the root cause of lameness in horses.